July 18, 2026 – On the afternoon of Monday, June 22, 2026, a brutal inferno ripped through the commercial building – all of three stories tall and in the posh area of Aliganj in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow – taking the lives of 15 unfortunate individuals, most of them in the tender ages of their twenties. The dead included young students and budding professionals. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who canceled his engagements and rushed to the site, followed by a visit to the injured students at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), announced a high-level SIT inquiry to investigate into the matter and ascertain who is to be held responsible, through criminal negligence or the fault of the State.
This detailed investigation follows the tragic incident below.
The inferno originated from what is said to be a short-circuit in an air conditioner duct in the basement of the complex. A pet shop,a graphics and animation coaching centre, a library and several shops occupied the building. There were three floors in the commercial complex – basement, ground, first and second. Wooden furniture helped in fanning the flames.
The lack of proper vent for gas to vent out and escape routes led to the death of those who could not get out and died of suffococation and burning in a jiffy. 15 persons died and quite a few suffered injuries, including serious trauma, with many jumping from the second floor and suffering broken backs.
NDRF and SDRF teams have been put on the job along with a Fire Service unit to extricate those still trapped and to carry out rescue operations. Firemen have to force their way into the building from behind after drilling holes into the wall to retrieve bodies or to rescue any survivor trapped. Also some pets in the pet shop there on the ground floor were rescued.
On the directions of the Chief Minister, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, Culture & Religious Affairs, Amrit Abhijat and Additional Director General of Police, Lucknow Zone, Praveen Kumar will now investigate in to this gruesome event. The SIT has been asked to submit its report in seven days and will investigate into the circumstances that led to the disaster, and if fire safety guidelines were violated and whether the construction had permission to carry commercial activities and if the necessary clearances had been obtained by the owners and commercial operations carried out in the building. The SIT is also mandated to fix accountability, especially of the building’s owners, in cases of criminal negligence or laxity if any on their part. It will investigate whether due procedure was followed during construction of the building and thereafter when permissions were granted for commercial establishments.
The state machinery, it looks is on their toes now.
Two officials of the LDA and one of the food department have already been suspended after preliminary reports hinted at their role and a massive raid was conducted by local police against unauthorized constructions and operation of such complexes without appropriate fire clearances in the city. A case under Section 269 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been filed against four persons, identified as building owners Ramakrishna Upadhyay, Virendra Prasad Shukla, Tushank Krishna Jaiswal, and Suresh Kumar Sahu. They have been arrested by the police. The Chief Minister announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh for each of the deceased and ₹50,000 for those who were injured, in addition to ₹2 lakh already announced by the Centre for families of victims and a similar compensation for the injured by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The building on question had an order of demolition, that however was revoked, within a couple of months.
A separate inquiry has been ordered for this act of sheer administrative and governmental lapses.
